Marvel Heroes: First impressions

It's out and it’s free to play! Gazillion Entertainment's Marvel Heroes is the latest in a pile of Free to Play action-RPGs. As you've no doubt guessed, it's set in the Marvel Universe, allowing you to take on the guise of one of many popular superheroes. I've spent a few hours delving into the game to bring you my first impressions.

First and foremost the game looks great, with polished, and eye-pleasing, characters and environments. Each superhero begins with a standard-looking costume, in which you'd most likely recognise them; Daredevil in his pure red get-up; Spider-man in the classic blue and red; Hulk, with his green skin and torn pants; and so on - with alternate costumes being unlocked as you progress, or bought outright with MH in-game currency.

It follows the standard ARPG set-up, with impending world annihilation; the Earth is in plight from Dr. Doom and you, and your fellow superheroes, must stop at nothing to thwart his dastardly schemes. You choose a starting hero from a roster of five (I chose Daredevil) and are then thrown into the action. The super prison, The Raft, has been attacked in order to break out its supervillain inmates - allowing them to spill out and rampage across the city.

Here we have the man without fear himself, sporting this classic little red number.

Although the game looks different to the usual dungeon-crawly games the genre is all too familiar with, it plays just the same. You pick up a quest from the main hub (the Avengers Tower in this instance) and are sent on your merry way to either collect certain items or defeat certain foes. You use the left mouse button for your standard attack and movement, and your right mouse button, along with your assigned keys on the keyboard, to use your special abilities. Health and Mana... oh, sorry, Spirit meters can be topped up by collecting the colour-coordinated orbs that drop from enemies you defeat, or by using specific items. Along with these orbs, there are also experience orbs which drop upon defeating enemies, a la Kingdom Hearts.

One entertaining feature was a random event in which Venom appeared – an indicator flashed up on screen requesting that I defeat him, well I sped towards the marker immediately. When I got to Venom I found what can only be described as a hootenanny of players, all bashing their right mouse buttons into fragments trying to hit him. There were so many players in that one area, that the lag and frame rate drop was almost unbearable. We chased Venom up the screen, down the screen, left a bit, and even right… Just getting a hit on the slippery symbiote was a big achievement, and eventually after about 5 mins of Benny Hill-style shenanigans we took him down. Our reward wasn’t quite as spectacular as the effort we put in to end his tirade, but I guess the pleasure in doing is its own reward, right?

This is one of the moments where I was really awe-struck, Venom shifted to moving right... and slightly up! You'll spot his lil tootsies at the top of the screen.

Although this was fun, and a welcome break to the 'go there, kill those goons' missions, I wouldn't want to go through this again any time soon - what a chore!

Whilst MH is offering up a different universe in which to play an APRG, it still feels like the same old to me, so far. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun game, but I am still searching for something in it that will hook me - I would have thought the simple fact it's a 100% Marvel universe would have grabbed me, but alas it hasn't yet. Stick around, as I’ll be bringing you a further update once I’ve had more time with it.

Are you playing Marvel Heroes? Which character are you playing? Are you as tired of ARPG's as I am?